Steve French Blasts Vincent Sheheen’s Education Plan

LIBERTARIAN SLAMS DEMOCRAT FOR PROPOSING “FEEL GOOD FLUFF”

Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Steve French has proven adept at taking the fight to S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley … but he’s also not afraid to throw some jabs at the other mainstream party’s nominee.

This week French took a swipe at S.C. Sen. Vincent Sheheen – the Democratic gubernatorial nominee – over the latter’s education plan, a monument to central planning that this website equated to as a “tripling down” of the state’s commitment to big government.

In a tweet, French described the Sheheen plan as “more feel good fluff for politicians while our kids are stuck in under performing classrooms.”

On his website, French advocates on behalf of expanded parental choice in the private sector – not the government-controlled “public school choice” supported by Sheheen.

“The plan is proven and simple: make the money follow the child not the schools,” he writes. “By giving parents the deciding power on where their kid goes to school, we will open up one of the largest and most diverse primary education markets in the world. Imagine if you only had one restaurant to choose from. Would the food quality be good? Would the service be excellent? If it wasn’t – would the operator of the restaurant care?”

French also supports opting out of federal mandates like No Child Left Behind and Common Core, and “backpacking” existing state funding so that the money follows the individual child – not bloated, cash-hoarding local bureaucracies.